“your two sons…are mine” (Gen 48:5)
Ephraim and Manasseh were two sons born (in that order) to Joseph and his Egyptian wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On (Heliopolis) (Gen 41:45; 46:20).
As part-Egyptian, questions may have arisen as to their status within the covenant family. Jacob’s determination to bless the two boys bore greater significance, therefore, than might otherwise be thought. He says to Joseph “your two sons…are mine” (Gen 48:5).
Unlike Ishmael who was born of Abraham and an Egyptian woman they are brought into the covenant, and to establish that Jacob gives his blessing to both boys – though by faith exalting the younger over the older.
Here we see that the covenant is not limited to those descendants “according to the flesh.” It is true that “Of whom [the Jews] are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen” (Rom 9:5). However, we also know that “they are not all Israel who are of Israel” (v. 6), and “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29).
The adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh is an early glimpse of this truth.
We, like Ephraim and Manasseh, have been adopted into the covenant family. We are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:15-17).
This changes the way we view our relationship with God, and with other believers. We are not strangers striving to appease an angry, foreign deity; we are children! We are not striving for acceptance; we are walking in it. This means I do not view my salvation as tenuous, but settled. And as a result our lives are connected to other believers. There are no lone rangers in the body of Christ.
Let us worship our great God with joy as His children, witnessing to His glory and grace, while waiting on Him with trust as he brings all things to the glorious consummation in His Son.